Disbelieve it: Canadiens eliminate Pens, 5-2

May 13, 2010 - 4:12 AM

By ALAN ROBINSON
AP Sports Writer

PITTSBURGH(AP) -- First the Capitals, now the Penguins. The
Canadiens, the worst-record team in the playoffs, keep sending
home the NHL's best.

Brian Gionta had two power-play goals, Mike Cammalleri scored
his seventh goal of a series in which he upstaged Sidney Crosby
and Evgeni Malkin and Montreal built a stunning four-goal lead
before beating the Penguins 5-2 in Game 7 of the Eastern
Conference semifinals Wednesday night.

Believe it, Canadiens. Disbelieve it, Penguins.

Montreal, about the last team anyone would have picked to beat
the top-seeded Capitals, much less the reigning NHL champion
Penguins, accomplished what no team has done since the current
playoffs format was adopted in 1994. And that's beat the
Presidents' Trophy winner and Stanley Cup champion in successive
rounds as an eighth-seeded team.

"We played Washington and we were supposed to get killed and we
played these guys and we were supposed to get killed,"
defenseman Hal Gill said. "It's nice to be part of a team that
gets things done."

When it ended, the Canadiens crowded around goalie Jaroslav
Halak, who made 37 saves in a performance not quite as
dominating as that in Montreal's 2-1 elimination win of
Washington but one that shut down the NHL's oldest arena.

The Canadiens move on to the Eastern Conference finals against
Boston or Philadelphia. The Flyers beat the Bruins 2-1 on
Wednesday night to force Game 7.

"I don't claim we're this great team, I don't claim we're
perfect and I don't claim that everything we do is on purpose,"
Cammalleri said. "I think we're just finding ways to win."

The Canadiens, who trailed the series 3-2 before winning 4-3 in
Game 6, silenced the standing room crowd of 17,132 in the last
game played at 49-year-old Mellon Arena by seizing a 1-0 lead on
Gionta's power-play goal only 32 seconds into the game. The
Canadiens built it to 4-0 with barely 25 minutes gone.

"I was stunned," Crosby said of his penalty for driving Josh
Gorges into the boards. "I don't know how that's a penalty 10
seconds into the game."

Dominic Moore made it 2-0 later in the period and Cammalleri
scored his playoff-leading 12th goal at 3:32 of the second.

"Who would expect it? Nobody gave us a chance and here we are,"
Halak said.

The tone was set when Crosby drew his penalty - it was the
Penguins who couldn't make plays, made the wrong decisions,
stood around as Montreal skated past them.

When Travis Moen scored on a short-handed breakaway by skating
past defenseman Sergei Gonchar and wristing a shot past
Marc-Andre Fleury, it was 4-0 with 14:46 remaining in the
second. Effectively, it was over.

It was for Fleury, the Game 7 star of last year's finals against
Detroit. He was pulled after giving up four goals on 13 shots,
and Brent Johnson finished up.

Chris Kunitz and Jordan Staal beat Halak later in the second
period. But Halak turned aside Crosby 25 seconds into the third
period as the teams skated 4-on-3, perhaps the biggest of
Halak's saves.

Montreal made it 5-2 when Gionta got his second of the game, and
seventh in the playoffs, with 10 minutes remaining.

The Canadiens ran out the clock and, following the traditional
handshakes, many fans remained to watch a video tribute to the
nation's first and only retractable roof indoor arena. Mellon
Arena is expected to be torn down, sometime after the Penguins
move across the street into Consol Energy Center.

"We've been talking about a lot, 'Let's make sure we play the
last game at this rink,"' Cammalleri said. "That's a cool piece
of history for us."

This wasn't the way the Penguins wanted to go out.

Maybe they simply didn't believe a team like the Canadiens could
do it, much like the Capitals couldn't. Maybe it was fatigue -
the Penguins have played 300-plus games the last three seasons,
advancing to the finals in 2008 and winning them in 2009. While
they did, they've enjoyed only two calendar months without
hockey since September 2008.

"I'm not going to sit here and complain about playing in Stanley
Cup finals and Olympic gold medal games, that's a good problem
to have and you've got to deal with it," Crosby said.

Crosby and Malkin were handcuffed throughout the series by
Montreal's suffocating, turnover-forcing defense.

Gill, injured for Game 6 but back for Game 7, was on the ice for
nearly every Crosby shift, and the NHL's regular season goal
scoring co-leader managed only one goal in seven games. So did
Malkin, even though Montreal played the final six games without
its top defenseman, Andrei Markov (knee).

"They beat Washington, now they beat us," defenseman Brooks
Orpik said. "I think it's time to give this team some credit for
what they've done, rather than picking apart why we didn't do
what we were supposed to do."

NOTES: The Penguins were 2-0 in Game 7s during their Stanley Cup
run last season, winning both on the road. ... Montreal is 13-8
in Game 7s, Pittsburgh is 7-5. ... The Canadiens also played the
first game in Mellon Arena, then known as the Civic Arena,
winning 2-1 on Oct. 11, 1967. ... Pittsburgh also lost Game 7s
at home after leading 3-2 in 1993 (Islanders) and 1996
(Panthers).